By Karen MacGregor. If the conversation about university rankings is important, then the starting point would be to design a ranking system for Africa that encourages positive conduct – “precisely because we know that rankings are influential, for example in resource allocation”, said University of Johannesburg Vice-chancellor Ihron Rensburg at the inaugural Times Higher Education Africa Universities Summit held in the city from 30-31 July. Read more...

By Ashraf Khaled. Egypt’s higher education authorities have said they are studying the development of open education programmes in the nation’s universities after the 25-year-old system drew widespread criticism.
The Supreme Council of Universities, which is in charge of higher education policy, formed a commission of academics to look into problems of open education and ways of upgrading it.
“This committee has compiled a 500-page report about the problems of this type of education and how the system has deviated from its course,” council head Ashraf Hatem said recently. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. Vice-chancellors have launched a new ‘activist’ association called Universities South Africa, which will represent the interests of the university sub-sector of higher education and will speak for the country’s 26 public universities rather than their leaders. Read more...

By Wagdy Sawahel. Weak links between higher education and the labour market lead to a high level of youth unemployment, which represents a waste of human resources and increases the social exclusion that makes societies more vulnerable to civil disorder and political upheaval.
This was the main message from a 4 August European Training Foundation report, The Challenge of Youth Employability in Arab Mediterranean Countries – The role of active labour market programmes.
The report analyses the challenges of youth unemployment in five North African countries including Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia along with three other Arab countries – Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. Read more...

By Gilbert Nganga. There could be major relief on the way for Kenyan graduates as parliament mulls over a law that will bar the state-funded student loans agency from imposing interest and penalties on loans to graduates who remain jobless after completing their studies. Read more...

By Wachira Kigotho. The Addis Convention is meant to be similar to the Bologna process – one of the world’s most successful processes of harmonising university degrees. Through a mutual agreement, Bologna has created a European Higher Education Area involving more than 40 countries. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. The World Bank-backed African Centres of Excellence initiative is expanding from Central and West Africa to East and Southern Africa. A call for universities that can develop highly skilled personnel and conduct applied research to meet the economic and developmental needs of the region was made in Uganda last month. Read more...

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In News, Brendan O’Malley reports on a landmark study for the European Parliament on the internationalisation of higher education, which calls for international mobility to be made an integral part of an internationalised curriculum to ensure internationalisation is for all.
In our blog, Hans de Wit, one of the authors of that study, warns that the growing trend for mobility in schools could create an awkward gap at universities if the curriculum is not internationalised.
In Features, Wachira Kigotho reports on analysis showing that many African universities are facing challenges from conflicts spawned in the Arab world and propelled by Islam.
In our Commentary section, Tom Abeles says the evolution of artificial intelligence will not replace university teachers but it will challenge their role and could eliminate a significant academic overhead. Conor King unpicks evidence that it is not what or where you study that matters most to your chances of earning more income, but whether you do study. Munawar A Anees and Maryam Iraj say a deadly plague of plagiarism is undermining the values of Pakistan’s universities. And Nico Cloete yearns for more ‘Triumphs and Laments’ in place of the toppling of Columbus and Rhodes. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. In Africa Features, we report on a rankings conversation held at the inaugural Times Higher Education Africa Universities Summit in Johannesburg, at which university leaders called for ‘bespoke’ indicators that encourage positive behaviour and speak to development goals.
Wachira Kigotho outlines an analysis showing that many African universities are facing challenges from conflicts spawned in the Arab world and propelled by Islam.
And in Africa Analysis, Nico Cloete compares the toppling of statues of colonialists Christopher Columbus and Cecil John Rhodes in Argentina and South Africa, and yearns for more complex notions of history to trump populist rhetoric.
In World Blog, Hans de Wit warns that growing international mobility in schools could create an awkward gap at universities if curricula are not internationalised. In News, Brendan O’Malley reports on a new European study that calls for international mobility to be made an integral part of an internationalised curriculum to ensure internationalisation is for all.
In a bumper Commentary section, among others Tom Abeles says the evolution of artificial intelligence will not replace university teachers but will challenge their role. Conor King uncovers evidence that it is not what or where you study that matters most to subsequent income earned, but rather whether you do study. And Munawar A Anees and Maryam Iraj worry that rampant plagiarism is undermining Pakistan’s universities. Read more...